Peter J. Leithart

Following up Agamben’s discussion: Robert Durling and Ronald Martinez ( Time and the Crystal: Studies in Dante’s Rime petrose , 269-70) explain the hexameral structure of the sestina by reference to both philosophical and biblical sources: “In both form and content, Dante’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Andrew Delbanco writes of the “two faces of American education” at NYRB this week. Two? I thought. Only two? Turns out, Delbanco’s essay is a review of Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools and . . . . Continue Reading »

Whatever happened to poetry? many wonder. Those who wonder probably don’t realize that a lot of poetry continues to be written. On the other hand, they may be perfectly aware that a lot of what’s written passes itself off as poetry, but they deny that it qualifies. And they have a . . . . Continue Reading »

In ancient Greek, dunamis was potentiality, energeia was power in act. Agamben ( The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans ) thinks that Paul is perfectly aware of the distinction, and actually employs it in Ephesians 3:7 and Philippians 3:21. Faith is the principle of . . . . Continue Reading »

Alain Badiou has made much of Paul’s contribution to Western universalism, which expresses an “indifference with regard to customs and traditions” and “an indifference that tolerates difference” ( Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism , 98-99). Agamben is rightly . . . . Continue Reading »

Agamben ( The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans ) makes an intriguing connection between the Pauline notion of calling and the Marxist theory of class. He takes a clue from the improbable etymology that links the Greek klesis to the Latin classis . Whether that etymology . . . . Continue Reading »

Giorgio Agamben offers an intriguing discussion of the Pauline concept of calling in his The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans . For Paul, calling is always linked with the arrival of the messianic age in Jesus. But this does not, contra Weber, imply an indifference to . . . . Continue Reading »

Jonathan loved David as himself (1 Samuel 18). Despite the risk to his own status and his future kingship, Jonathan was a good neighbor to David. Because of that love, Jonathan made a covenant with David. First love, then covenant to give form to that love. First one is a good neighbor, and then . . . . Continue Reading »

The title of Anna Whitelock’s The Queen’s Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth’s Court makes is sound like a soap opera about royal lovers. Elizabeth’s regular bedfellows were not male lovers but female attendants. As the TLS reviewer , Helen Hackett, notes, “Sharing . . . . Continue Reading »

Giorgio Agamben notes in the preface to his recent Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty that “The word liturgy (from the Greek leitourgia , ‘public services’) is . . . relatively modern. Before its use was extended progressively, beginning at the end of the nineteenth century, we find . . . . Continue Reading »